If you look at what’s changing in the organizational landscape, the overarching challenge is agility, the ability to adapt faster. What’s emerging as a consensus for success is that this comes from people working together in particular ways. So it’s worthwhile exploring what those ways are, and what can be done to facilitate these outcomes. And this is inherently social. There are many contributions that come from working smarter on your own. We can make sure we’re good at researching, evaluating, reflecting, and more. However, then we should also make sure we have optimized the contributions coming from us working together. The key schema to this is ‘learning’, in a particular way. When we trouble-shoot, problem-solve, design, research, and more, when we innovate, we don’t know the answer when we start. So, in a meaningful way, these too are learning opportunities. However, the difference here is that there isn’t someone with the answer who can coach us, so we need to work in the best ways possible. And lots of information is known about working productively in these instances. You have to be clear about what good collaboration practices are. How do you ask for help in ways that someone will be willing to assist? How do you offer help in ways that will get someone to listen to you? How do you distribute work, check on progress without seeming like a control freak, and more? You shouldn’t assume that these skills are known. There are many dimensions of working together. For one, the nature of the contribution is a factor: are you communicating or actually contributing? You can be pointing to useful information triggered by the situation, or actually investing effort in analysis of the problem and brainstorming and evaluating potential solutions. Both can be valuable, but they’re very different ways to be engaged. A second dimension is the time frame. Are we working to solve a particular problem, brainstorming and then moving on to leave it to someone, or is this a working team that meets regularly to address an ongoing situation? The commitment here is an issue. Are we agreeing to work until we have a solution, or are we willing to drop in for a time and give our thoughts and contributions in a focused and constrained effort. Both are viable and valuable, but require different types of processes and support. Another dimension is your motivation to contribute. Harold Jarche talks about collaboration versus cooperation, where in the former you’re actively pursuing a goal for some personal or external reason, whereas in the latter you’re contributing because it is in the general interest of a networked era. The latter, of course, is a nice situation, but can be hard to engender in places where the culture isn’t conducive to contribution. The important thing is to find effective ways to think alone and then together. There’s a saying that "the room is smarter than the smartest person in the room", but there’s a caveat: if you manage the process right. If we allow one person to speak before others have had their chance to think about the problem, that response will color (and limit) the others. Similarly, we want everyone to have enough time to process the situation. So ensuring that there’s private time for preparation and cogitation before converging together is important. It can be done in the meeting: presenting the problem and then giving quiet time first, or before meeting preparation. Diversity helps too. It turns out that having diversity of background, culture, and more amongst the team members helps. It can be more challenging to manage, but the outcomes are better. Another element is making sure that everyone gets a chance to contribute. When contribution is equal, the quality of the outcome goes up. Similarly, having the right number of people helps. There needs to be enough people that you get the required breadth and depth, but too large a group and the management gets unwieldy. Research suggests teams in the range of 5-9 individuals work best, but factors such as representing the necessary skills can influence the optimum total. Further, you have to actually be willing to consider new ideas. If the response is "that’s not how we do it here", are folks really willing to listen? There has to be a commitment to solicit and evaluate new ideas with fair consideration. And, it has to be safe to contribute. If you’re in what I call a Miranda Organization, where anything you say can and will be held against you, you’re not going to get participation. A competitive environment, where you don’t want to give your fellow employees an advantage, isn’t going to be able to tap into this information without external motivators. People will reserve information until it does them a personal good, whereas in another culture the contribution to the general good will be seen as a personal benefit as well. In short, there has to be a culture for learning together. Attitudes about the benefits of contributing have to be complemented by a desire to improve. The values have to be coupled with specific skills on how to learn together. Importantly, the atmosphere and skills can, and should, be developed. So how do you shift to an environment where collaboration can flourish, delivering the best outcomes for the organization? There are several paths, each with it’s own contribution. And there’s no reason they can’t be implemented in parallel. One of the ways is to instill practices about "working and learning out loud", or as Jane Bozarth terms it in her book of the same name, "show your work". Here, employees are encouraged to leave evidence of what they’re working on, and the underlying thinking behind it. The benefits to communication, being able to track progress, are clear. There are also benefits to collaboration, if others, visiting, can and do provide feedback. To get there takes the usual change elements: there has to be a rationale, someone modeling it, evangelism and support, etc. Difficulties should be anticipated, and support for unanticipated outcomes should be available as well. As with any such change, it will take time, but with systematic work it can be accomplished. Arguably, having it instantiated in a small group first, and working, will help spread the idea. Another approach is to build it into your formal learning. In courses, online and face-to-face, have assignments where workers need to collaborate. Ideally, they’re spread out over time, mimicking the ways in which such assignments will likely happen. Have them practice working together in groups first, and then send them away on the same or other projects to work online. This latter, in particular, is the way to get them using the tools that you want them to be using. Whether a dedicated tool for work like a wiki, or the collaborative document tools that are increasingly available, have learners use them for tasks as preparation for using them in work. Here you have an opportunity to observe and develop their ability. You can do so in real practice, of course, but this is a time when the task is known, and the expectation of observation and feedback is encouraged. A number of elements come into play. Your learners will have to develop the ability to comment on the outcome, not the person. They’ll have to learn how to review changes over time, and how to resolve conflicts in vision that can result in bouncing back and forth between two versions. Culturally, you’ll have to make it clear that effective collaboration is not only valued, but expected. Of course, you’ll have to help your L&D team learn about the facilitation of collaboration too, such as when to intervene and when to step back. It’s clear that the future of business is social, and that tools and skills to facilitate this are part of an organization that can continue to innovate and be adaptive enough to not just survive, but to thrive. The question is whether you’re ready to make the step, and willing to invest the effort to develop the skills and the culture. The post Why The Future of Work is Collaborative appeared first on Litmos.

How To Integrate Branding In eLearning Developing a successful brand image is not an easy task. In fact, it takes a great deal of dedication, planning, and determination to cultivate an online brand that stands the test of time. Fortunately, integrating your brand into your eLearning course design can help build your brand and make it flourish. In this article, I’ll share some unexpected ways that you can brand your eLearning experiences without devoting a significant amount of time or resources to the process. Including your logo and contact information are two of the easiest ways to integrate your brand image into your eLearning course. However, there are a variety of ways that you can take your branding to the next level and offer online learners more subtle reminders of your online presence. In other words, you can introduce them to your brand without hitting them over the head with large logos and website links on every page. Here are some of the overlooked brand integration techniques that you can use in your next eLearning course design. Fonts that reflect your company’s message. Even the font in your eLearning course can reflect the image and message, as well as the specific tone you are trying to convey. If the company already has a font type that they use for promotional materials, then you may want to consider carrying it over to your eLearning course. Otherwise, opt for a font that is legible and clearly depicts the overall feel of your organization. For example, a tech firm might want to use a more modern and sleek font for their eLearning program. Brand-specific layouts. Many eLearning authoring tools have templates that allow you to simply input your information, make minor modifications, and then upload the eLearning course. Search through their media library to see if there are any eLearning templates that align with your brand image. If not, you may want to create a master template yourself that you can use for all future eLearning courses. This gives you the opportunity to create a cohesive eLearning program without spending a great deal of time on the development process, as you already have an eLearning template on hand. Images featuring your locations. If you have a physical location, you can opt for images that showcase your office or sales floor. This not only brands your eLearning materials, but makes the eLearning experience relatable and realistic for your online learners. For example, an online scenario that features actual pictures of the work station creates a greater sense of immersion for your employees. You can also include pictures of your employees to give everyone a glimpse of your business team. This puts a personal spin on your organization and integrates the all-important human element. Color palettes. One of the easiest ways to incorporate branding in eLearning is to customize the color scheme. Many eLearning templates even feature color modification tools to personalize every aspect of the eLearning course design. Just be sure that you keep your colors consistent throughout. The exception to this would be using a different color scheme for different branches or departments within the organization. For example, you can set the customer service training apart from the HR training by using a different color palette. Background images. In addition to realistic images that feature your offices, you may also want to include background images that are reminiscent of your brand. These can even be abstract graphics or images that convey your message or overall style. Keep in mind that background images should not be distracting or chaotic, as this may prevent your online learners from focusing on the key takeaways of the eLearning course. Also, make sure that the font and background do not conflict with one another, such as using a dark colored font on a busy black and white background. Social media buttons. Social media buttons are one of the most overlooked branding tools that you have at your disposal. Rather than making your online learners search the web to find your Facebook and LinkedIn profile pages, they can simply click on a link or button to quickly like or subscribe to your social media feeds. Social media buttons also give you the opportunity to keep your learners informed and cultivate a social learning culture. When they have issues and need to reach out, they can post on your page or send you a private message in a matter of seconds. This further enhances your brand image, as online learners know that you respect their opinions and care about their experience by offering them social media contacts. Ensure that ALL online platforms are cohesive. Every eLearning course and promotional site or page that you may have online should align with your brand image. They should all contain the same logos, fonts, and general color scheme, so that online learners immediately recognize your organization. This also helps your company to build credibility. If you have not taken the time to clearly identify your brand image, then this is the first and most important step in the process. Sit down with your team to figure out the message you want to convey, the image you are trying to project, and which niche you fall into. If necessary, speak with a branding expert who can point you in the right direction and offer advice. Then you will be able to incorporate a solid and cohesive brand image into all of your learning and marketing materials without any ambiguity. Including branding in eLearning to show your pride for the finished product and attract new clients who are impressed by your top notch eLearning experience. Use this guide to pick and choose the branding elements that are right for your eLearning strategy, when creating your next eLearning course. Looking for ways to improve your online eLearning presence? Read the article 5 Tips On How eLearning Professionals Can Create An Effective Online Presence and boost your online exposure. The post 7 Unexpected Ways To Integrate Branding In Corporate eLearning appeared first on Litmos.

From 20 to 200! This is how fast hundreds of small businesses want to grow. Like those currently attending the SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco. And in today's environment, that growth needs to happen fast. But that can be a huge challenge. Not only for the leadership of the company but for anyone given the responsibility for training as the company grows so large so fast. The internet is filled with blogs and discussions and thought leaders rambling on about the learning and development industry. Very few, if any, discuss the unique training challenges of the small fast growing businesses in today's economy. The practical actions required to get your training done are vastly different from that of a Fortune500 company. It's important to understand those differences and to not feel like you're "doing it wrong" based on what the internet says. In my experience, the Fortune500 could learn a lot from bootstrapped startups handling their training needs with limited resources. Why the L&D Industry is Not Helping the Little Guy Much of what the L&D industry discusses is aimed at large enterprises like those in the Fortune 500 or Global 2000. Most case studies presented at large industry conferences are presented by CLOs and other senior managers from these same enterprises. Strategy conversations revolve around these companies that have had training departments in place for many many years. These mature enterprises have had adequate time to launch and relaunch training initiatives, implement Learning management systems, and in some cases multiple LMSs. These are important conversations for the L&D industry to have as we can all learn from their experiences. However, we rarely hear about what their training department was like when these same companies were considered small and medium sized businesses. And to complicate things, even if we did hear about those experiences, that occurred 10-20+ years ago, it is highly unlikely their solutions would apply to today's small business environment. SMBs need to act fast. If you are responsibility for training in a SMB you need to act fast as well. It's a different environment than a mature enterprise already staffing an entire Learning &Development(L&D) department across all business units. SMB training departments do not have the luxury of 6-7 figure budgets and a small army of resources. In most cases the small business has one employee in charge of getting training done. This need for speed and lack of resources means the SMB training manager needs to be resourceful and accept solutions that enterprise L&D professionals might frown upon. Such is the life of a training professional building a training department in a rapidly growing businesses. Small Fast Growing Businesses Should NOT Follow Current L&D Practices SMBs are uniquely situated at a point in time where there is major disruption in the L&D industry. It's obvious that technology is, and has been, disrupting all industries for many years now. Sadly, the L&D industry has been disrupted as well, but has not responded well to the change. Your SMB is growing fast. You probably utilize powerful new communication tools like slack, twitter, and maybe even snapchat. So much of growing a small business is now supported by SaaS based systems, and apps. Many of those systems are outstanding tools for sharing knowledge, and collaborating with team members. However, when you're tight on resources and still need to onboard new employees, deliver customer training and channel sales training, and more, then you need a powerful SaaS based Learning Management System to get the job done. Don't be fooled in to thinking you need to buy an authoring tool AND a learning management system AND instructional design consultants. At the current stage of your business, you need to keep things simple. A powerful, flexible, quick to implement, and easy to use system like Litmos will not only get you started, but will grow right along with your business.  You may only have one person responsible for making sure the training gets done, but an easy to use system allows everyone in the business to pitch in and help create training related to their unique area of expertise. It's okay to shoot instructional videos with your mobile phone. It's okay to publish your powerpoint presentations as courses. It's okay to create multiple choice questions as an assessment. All of these things are perfectly acceptable as training content at this point in your business. Despite what you might read, see, or hear, from the L&D consultants of large enterprise companies. When your business grows beyond 200 and you have the resources to expand your training team, THEN you can think about upgrading your content. Until then, depending upon your situation, you may be just throwing money away that could have been used for marketing or product development. Of course, all of this will depend upon your unique situation. But the point of this post is to help you understand that as you grow, you can be successful by not following "the rules" of the L&D industry. You can be a rebel and still get the job done. You will be hiring very smart people that mostly want content and for people to get out of their way.  Even relatively average adults have a significant drive to learn things on their own. Use a system like Litmos and make content available as quickly and easily as possible. And give everyone the ability to create courses and teach. Your training department should not be a gatekeeper to the acquisition or creation of learning content. Find out for yourself and sign up for a trial account today. It's even possible to have your course content uploaded and delivered before you end your day. Do it! The post Fast Company Growth Requires Faster Training Solutions appeared first on Litmos.

Is the rewind button one of the most underrated learning technologies of all time? Consider that question for a moment. The concept of spaced repetition is a hot topic in learning communities. While the spacing part may be new the repetition part is not. Today's technologies can support spaced repetition much better than ever before. However, was there a time when this was never possible? Today's digital programming technologies can define the most effective time variation and deliver the content to any device. That's a big deal. Automating all the aspects of successfully spaced content repetition is quite amazing. But this got me thinking about older technologies. Like the underwhelming brilliance of the rewind button. If the content is needed, no matter how bad the production value is, the rewind button makes it effective learning content. Life Before Rewind Video is something we all take for granted. We've all had TV in our lives. And our kids have now grown up with digital video and Youtube for most, if not all, of theirs. Learning from TV was possible. But you only got the information one time, unless the program "aired" again. Audio had a separate history. I remember a time before rewind when repeating a certain guitar riff meant lifting the turntable needle and swinging it back a few grooves to replay that part of the song. 8 track tapes never had a rewind. Much like broadcast TV, you had one shot at it. If the riff passed, then you had to wait for the track to cycle around. However, 8-track tapes did give the user control of when the song would air next in it's entirety.  So, in that respect, it was a big step forward. During that time before rewind, however, we did have books. Books have always had rewind, or review, built into their structure. If you owned the book you could read it when, and where ever you wanted. You could read it how ever you wanted as well. In the order it was written. Or jumping around from chapter to chapter in your own particular order. If something in the content did not make sense you could read it again, and again, and again until something clicked and you understood. So the practical nature of printed content, and the ability to review it, still made print the preferred medium for content. Most other forms of entertainment were live events you need to attend, or broadcastings of live events across radio or television. The Power to Record Gives Us the Ability to Rewind Fast forward to the age of the cassette tape and we discover a simple, yet powerful, learning feature in the rewind button. That ability with books to go back in time was now available to both audio and video content. The rewind button is never quoted in books as a technological marvel. But why not?  That one simple button probably did more for learning in that time than most other technologies. Did we miss it? The shift from live broadcasting to recorded content was a big shift. At least as big as the shift to live broadcasting from live events. But at the time few people cared. Maybe some did, but schools certainly didn't. Well that's probably not true. Schools cared enough to trade in their film projectors for tape machines. But I don't remember pedagogy changing at all. I don't ever remember a teacher saying, "hey students, let's rewind that part and watch it again because it's important". And I definitely don't remember them saying, "watch this video when you get home as often as you need too." School didn't change with the invention of rewind, but that doesn't mean that learning had too. I remember my early days of learning to play guitar. The rewind button was a critical part of the learning process. Listening to one section over and over and over again, while searching for the same notes and sounds on my guitar. I believe the rewind button is also responsible for countless hours of watching, and unknowingly memorizing, almost every Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and SCTV skit we could get our hands on. The rewind button gave us choice and control. Something we never had much of until that point. Looking back on it now I feel like the rewind button just made our lives easier, and better. All because of the simple ability to learn something faster, with less effort, than previously possible. How we interacted with technology changed...but nothing else did. (Something to think about: Are we experiencing the same thing with today's new tech?) Why Should We Care About the Rewind Button? I'm not sure I can answer that as this thought only recently crossed my mind. Today we move through recorded digital content effortlessly all day long. We skip commercials on TV. We listen to radio shows when we want too not just when they air. We even listen to podcasts at 1.5x and 2x speeds just because real life goes too slow. We take all of this technology for granted and forget how young it all is.  And we act like much of this technology is brand new. That we had to wait until digital tech and internet became real. When in fact, we've had rewind for many decades. You may not care about the rewinding of cassette tapes from 30-40 years ago. But you should be caring about video in general. And rewind is one of the biggest reasons why recorded video and audio has only just begun to take over the media landscape. And that includes taking over the learning content landscape. Control is the main reason I think the rewind button never changed education. The rewind button is all about learning and nothing to do with training/teaching. Individuals with the drive to own their own learning found the rewind button quickly and used it effectively. Teaching practices didn't change because teachers hated rewinding their lectures. "What do you mean you want me to repeat THAT? Weren't you listening?".  The the rewind button changed nothing for teaching. It changed EVERYTHING for learning.     The post The Most Powerful, and Mostly Ignored, Learning Technology appeared first on Litmos.

Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at the C3 conference in London. I participated in a Fireside Q&A, which was part of a series of learning seminars hosted by Litmos. I was interviewed by Rory Cameron, Vice President of Callidus Cloud, who asked me the following questions: 1. What are your top predictions for 2016 in the industry and technologies for learning? "Every year we are asked the same question about where we see the e-learning going. And I think it’s safe to say that we are not going to be seeing any huge changes in direction. It will be more evolution rather than revolution, with some of the key trends that we have seen over the past 3 to 5 years continuing to develop. This question has hundreds of answers! But one area that we are seeing really make an impact is gamification. Now although gamification is a huge buzz word in e-learning at the moment, it is nothing new. I remember sitting in bed as a 10-year-old, reading my adventure books before going to sleep. I would often reach the end of a chapter, only to be told that there was a decision to be made - do you want to go through the red or the blue door? Whichever door I walked through had a different consequence and would take me down a different path in the book. And this is a perfect example of gamification in practice. However the key change that we are seeing today is that the tools needed to create learning games are becoming more readily available. Even 5 years ago, the only way to create a computer game would be to hire a developer with video game development experience - which was usually way out of anyone’s budget. Nowadays, we are seeing affordable tools with which most developers can create learning based games." 2. What are your thoughts on improving adoption in employee training? "One of the most valuable pieces of advice I received when I started implementing e-learning within huge organisations was to ‘treat your e-learning solution as a business, and your learners as customers.’ I never forgot this piece of advice and it stood me in good stead as I tried to create something sustainable and effective. One of the key problems that I see time and time again with e-learning is that our L&D teams forget to market their solutions. Going back to the business analogy, there is no way you can create a successful business without a strong sales and marketing strategy. And the same must be applied to L&D. You have created a website, added valuable content, but nobody is visiting. You have to market your product! There is so much competition for your audience’s attention, why should they look at your LMS when they could be looking at the company intranet, YouTube, Facebook or chatting to their colleagues instead? Your e-learning will never be front of mind unless you are in constant communication with the audience. A simple first step could be creating an email marketing campaign. You already have the email addresses of your audience, why not send out monthly or biweekly email advertising the latest content available, and really focusing on the value that is being delivered. Why would your audience benefit from logging on to the LMS today? What’s in it for them? If you can communicate the value, you will see more people logging into the system and benefiting from the training." 3. How can the impact of training be measured? "There are many different ways to measure the impact of training. However, this must be an intentional part of the design process. If you don’t know before you start developing a course what you are intending to measure, there it becomes extremely difficult to measure anything! So my advice for measuring the impact of training is always the same - start with why. Why are you creating the course? What are you trying to achieve by implementing this training? Start by picking out one important reason that this training is required. Maybe you can then think of two or three more objectives, but try to keep to a maximum of five. Once you have identified these objectives, figure out how you are going to measure these. Will it be purely through analysing data from the course? I.e. does the learner know more now than they did before they took the training? If this is your method of measurement, can you measure this further down the line rather than just immediately after they taken the training? I.e. can you implement a refresher module six months down the line that will prove your training has been effective? Alternatively, are there more tangible statistics that you can use to measure the effectiveness of training? This could be an increase in sales, reduction in customer service issues, an improvement in staff retention or any other metric that has tangible business value. What we are measuring is irrelevant, but it is essential that you pick something before you develop the course and figure out how you plan to measure it." 4. Is there an ideal course formula for effective e-learning? "One of the analogies I find myself using frequently at the moment is that of watching television. Quite often, I get home from work and my girlfriend feels like putting on a movie. Yet I prefer watching box sets. I asked myself recently why this could be, and the answer was purely down to my inability to sit still for any period of time. I am a fidget! And whilst I will often sit down and watch three or four episodes of the box set, there is something that scares me about watching a movie - it’s the amount of time I’m committing upfront to watching a movie! What happens if I get halfway through the movie and decide that I want to do something else? 2 hours is a big commitment! And I think the exact same psychology applies when we deliver online training to our audience. If we provide them with one option, which is ‘do I open this e-learning course or not?’ the answer we often find is that they do not! So to reduce the commitment we are placing upon our learners when they arrive at the LMS dashboard, we should not only be breaking down the courses into much smaller components, but we should also be indicating how much time they will be committing to undertaking that module. A simple (5 mins) at the end of the module title can be enough for the learner to feel happy committing that much time to doing the course." (If you are interested in learning more about bitesize learning and the psychology behind that then please click here). 5. What are your recommendations for taking a training program to the next level? "Another great question! I can think of a couple of tips straight off the top of my head. First of all, I think one of the most important tips is to ensure the key stakeholders within the business are excited about e-learning. And the only way you are going to do this is to really deliver value to that group of people. One of the ways that I used to do this was to run small training sessions, and invite along these folk to educate them on how e-learning can positively impact their team, their customers and the organisation as a whole. For example, educating them about content - are they aware that they can go onto websites such as Coursera and Open Sesame and download courses for their teams, that can be delivered via the LMS? This is often something that is a complete revolution for these people. Another example is giving them a thorough demonstration the LMS in an administrative capacity - this can be really eye-opening. Very often they are unaware that they have access and can see granular training activity for their teams. But by educating this group of people, you will ultimately create a tribe. A group of people who champion e-learning within the organisation. And that is a much more effective tactic to generate excitement about what you are delivering than to try and tackle this all on your own. My second tip is communication. Communicate with your audience. It is very easy to push e-learning out into the ether and to never hear any feedback about what the audience enjoyed, what they disliked and what could make the experience better. It would take literally minutes to put together a series of short questions in a survey, and email the URL out to the audience. Even better, make it anonymous so that they don’t feel nervous about giving negative feedback. You may be shocked as to what you hear, it is often very difficult different to what you expect. Once you have this information, you will be able to start addressing the most commonly mentioned items and start seeing improvements in adoption." Conclusion The Fireside Q and A was a really exciting session, with lots of questions from the audience and deep discussion, specifically around how we can make elearning more engaging and increase user adoption. If you enjoyed this article then please take a look at Why engaging learning content and a state-of-the-art LMS is not enough... The post 5 Important Questions to Ask Yourself in 2016 appeared first on Litmos.

Earlier this year I attended CES2016 (Read more here, and here.) and discovered some very cool new tech. One of my favorites was not ready to ship until February. And once it arrived I was not disappointed. The Training and Development industry talks a lot about mobile learning in the sense that mobile devices are great tools for delivering training content. But today's mobile devices have become incredibly powerful mobile production studios. On there own, you can point them at the action and get some incredible video footage. And with a few quick taps and swipes you can edit that video a little, or import it into your favorite video app and edit it a lot. But you will quickly begin to realize that, while the phones are pretty good on their own, you will want to kick the quality up a notch or two. And this is where my favorite CES2016 discovery comes in handy. The Studio case by olloclip immediately caught my attention in their booth at CES2016. I tried to buy it right then but it was not yet shipping in January. Most of the cool products at CES were not shipping at the time. It's an event for announcements and demos of what is coming soon. And thankfully I didn't have to wait very long for this. I was hoping it would arrive before my trip to London for the Learning Technologies 2016 event, but no such luck. However, it was waiting for me when I got home. This morning I did a spontaneous, LIVE, "unboxing" on blab.im. Watch the video below to understand why I like it so much for video production. The rig I've been using until now was great but it was not as sturdy as I would like a setup like this to be. As you can see in the video, the clip attachments secure nicely to the case securing the phone to a tripod in either landscape or portrait mode, as well as 2 cold shoes for mounting a light and an external mic. I'm using the Rode Videomic Pro ($189) and a small LED light ($22) on my cold shoes. There is also a very clever handle that gives you a better grip on the unit when your shooting video of yourself, vlog-style, on the go. And the 4-in-1 iPhone lens attachment also fits perfectly on the case as well. It truly is a very convenient way to produce mobile videos a step above what your device can achieve on its own. In March I'll be at SXSW Interactive and putting this rig to the test of event vlogging. I'm looking forward to sharing a lot of video from Austin. Be sure to follow my Litmos Youtube channel if you want to stay updated. And don't forget about the C3 event this year. It's going to be bigger and better than ever! The post The Ultimate Mobile Learning Video Production Studio appeared first on Litmos.

As a franchisor you want your franchisees to be successful. You need to empower them. They need to know your vision and all the practical details required to execute that vision in their franchise. You know the old saying, "knowledge is power." That means training is a critical part of executing your franchise vision and empowering franchisees. You already have an operations manual. And you might think that manual is enough. While it has everything a franchisee would possibly need, it's not a training document. The operations manual is a reference document that is great to have at hand when questions arise. But there are better ways to empower franchisees with knowledge. And that's where a learning management system comes in. As the franchisor, you want to know who and, more importantly, who has not taken your training courses. A learning management system can give you quick and easy access to those reports. You'll also want the flexibility to assign courses to your franchisees. Some regions may require specialized training. Instead of pushing training to everyone, you need an LMS that allows you to decide who needs to take training based on criteria you define. And with the massive growth of mobile devices you need a system that can deliver your training content to any device. This empowers your franchisees by making training available to them any time, any where, and on any device. Why Choose a SaaS LMS Like Litmos? You need an LMS with a solid track record working with franchise business entrepreneurs. Zumba, Real Mex Restaurants, and Cellairis are great examples of the Litmos platform at the foundation of global training and development within a franchise. Cellairis uses Litmos to deliver the Cellairis University training program to franchise stores: "When it comes to our franchises, there are so many unique users and locations," states Blake Mohler, Franchise Training and Development Manager. "The hierarchies within Litmos are a lifesaver for us, making it easy to deliver training to specific people depending on their store and their specific role." After evaluating elearning LMS vendors, Real Mex restaurants chose Litmos LMS and created an online university, ‘Real Mex University’, for providing a single online training center for its employees and franchisees. And Zumba used Litmos to seamlessly globalize its continuing education programs for fitness instructors worldwide. Just few of the many reasons why the Litmos LMS is right for you and your franchise business: One of the best part of SaaS based systems is no infrastructure costs. Up and running in hours, not months. Moving your training online also reduces, or eliminates, expensive travel costs for classroom training events. As you grow Litmos grows with you. Automated communication keeps everyone updated with notifications. Document storage for your operations manuals, and any other documents. Deliver training to mobile devices. Sign up for a FREE trial right now!   The post How to Spend Less on Training Your Franchisees appeared first on Litmos.

In yesterday's blog post we covered the importance of managing your franchisee training program with a learning management system. Today, we talk about making that training mobile. Are You Comfortable with Your Training Strategy? Every franchise owner must first look at their specific business and find out what type of training program s/he is most comfortable with. Many consultants will present a right way and wrong way to you. But the reality is that the most successful training programs are the ones you are most comfortable with and willing to support both financially and culturally. It doesn't matter how good a specialized training program is if it's created by someone outside of your organization, and you don't even understand what it is. If you're not comfortable with the solution then there is a much higher chance of failure. It would be better for you to approve a classroom based training strategy, if that's what you will support, than invest in an advanced eLearning program that doesn't make sense to you. Your support is critical to your training success. It's Okay to be Unsure about Mobile Learning No matter what you decide, you will need a system in place that can not only support a comfortable strategy, but will support strategies you will be comfortable with in the future. Mobile learning is a perfect example. There are many ways to approach the effective use of mobile devices as learning tools. The idea of mobile learning is still relatively new and there is little consensus on what it the definition might be. This confusion might make you uncomfortable. And that discomfort might make it difficult for you to support immediately as you launch your franchisee training program. However, it's not hard to see that mobile devices will be around for the long term and at some point you will begin to feel comfortable with incorporating a mobile learning solution into your training program. It's okay to put off the fancy solutions for a while, but your systems supporting your early solutions should also be capable of supporting your future training programs as well. But You Need to be Confident in Your Systems SaaS-based learning management systems like Litmos give you the best balance of ease of use, flexibility, and expandability. You can quickly launch your Litmos LMS with one basic course if you need too. And then you can build your library up from there. Adding additional modules to one course is simple as well as adding new courses, and building collections of courses called Learning Paths. But a powerful feature of Litmos allows your learners to view all of your courses on mobile devices. Your online presence within the Litmos platform is completely mobile enabled. And that mobile capability will empower your franchisees by giving them the content they need when and where they need it. A Powerful Flexible Learning Management System Makes Everyone Happy It's okay to launch your franchise training program in a simple format because you need to get it done. But once you're up and running you will need to know that your systems will be able to keep up with the growth of your business. Mobile learning can be available to you immediately with Litmos. And as you grow and begin receiving feedback on your courses you will discover how best to move your training strategy forward.  And when your franchisees realize how convenient your mobile enabled courses are to take, they will thank you. You know your franchisees are very busy. Everything you give them should be flexible enough for them to view no matter where they are and no matter what device they are on. It may not sound like much. But giving them the opportunity to view training on a Saturday at home on the couch will make them happy as well as improve the chances of them viewing the content at all. And the more you can inform and educate your franchisees, the more successful they will be. And their success is your success. Start a FREE trial today!   The post Upgrade Your Franchisee Training Program with Mobile Learning appeared first on Litmos.

The ACA has caused a steep increase in patient responsibility by way of higher co-pays and deductibles. These factors have become a bigger part of the revenue cycle and are a challenge for facilities to capture the additional costs. Patients have become savvy consumers, comparing costs for services and selecting providers, clinics, and hospitals that yield the greatest result to the consumer. The ability to maximize their benefits, reducing their costs, while receiving the highest quality of care, is a driving force behind consumer healthcare decisions. There is a lot of misinformation regarding the healthcare exchange and Revenue Cycle Management, and managers need to adjust the way their staff engages with patients. Staff processes continue to be the same as they were 5-10 years ago, but the landscape has extensively changed in an alarming way — organizations need to work hard to keep up. Like any business, there is now consumer competition in the healthcare space. It is imperative to develop customer loyalty as you would in any other business. You do this by engaging your patients from intake and through the completion of the revenue cycle. Doing this will reduce your time to cash, improve your response rate and minimize the cost to collect. By communicating in a way that is transparent, you can create or modify the behaviors of your patients into one that is efficient to both parties. Staff Communication - Synergy within the Revenue Cycle Team: ICD-10 required most facilities to increase their training budget, as well as their staff size. Successful organizations started by reviewing provider documentation and educated physicians, in order to eliminate revenue cycle bottleneck. Online education allows physicians to audit and review documentation best practices in smaller chunks without having to sacrifice clinic or patient hours. Physician communication and engagement is integral to a healthy revenue cycle. Create Revenue Cycle integrity by: Keeping open communication between denial management team and coding team. Understanding denials due to documentation and those due to coding. Preparing to work with payers to overturn denials. Building reporting to identify cash trends and make inpatient case by payer. Revenue Cycle is a team sport and it is important that every player know and practice their role. The post The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Revenue Cycle appeared first on Litmos.

In memory of my friend, mentor, and colleague, Jay Cross, and his most recent campaign for Real Learning, I thought it appropriate to talk about learning to learn, or meta-learning. It was a passion we both shared, e.g. coming together to form the Meta-Learning Lab in the early 00’s, and it has persisted in both of our independent work. And it’s of real value to organizations. We all learn, naturally. I’ve suggested that natural learning taps into the 7 C’s of learning: Choose: we are self-service learners.  We follow what interests us, what is meaningful to us, what we know is important. Commit: we take ownership for the outcomes.  We work until we’ve gotten out of it what we need. Crash: our commitment means we make mistakes, and we learn from them. Create: we design, we build, we are active in our learning. Copy: we mimic others, looking to their performances for guidance. Converse: we talk with others. We ask questions, offer opinions, debate positions. Collaborate: we work together. We build together, evaluate what we’re doing, and take turns adding value. Arguably, it’s schooling that hinders our natural learning, where we lose choice, failure is considered bad, copying and conversing are viewed as cheating, and so on. As adults, we’re expected to learn effectively, yet we’re confounded by our natural approaches versus the approaches we used to succeed at the relatively artificial goals that school dictates. Consequently, it shouldn’t be surprising that the evidence suggests that we’re not as effective at learning as we could be. While we learn naturally, we may not naturally learn effectively. We can have flaws in our skills for and beliefs about learning, and these are addressable. Then the question is, should we be addressing them? A number of years ago, Jay Cross and I proposed that arguably the best investment one could make in an organization was developing the learning ability of employees. This is increasingly true, as the pace of change means that organizations not only need to optimally execute, but continually innovate. And here’s the necessary insight: when you’re problem-solving, researching designing, etc., you don’t know the answer when you start, hence you are inherently learning! It’s not formal learning, with instructors and known goals, it’s informal learning. And that means it’s inventing and innovating and collaborating and communicating, but at core it’s learning. It is this knowledge work, this learning, that is the necessary differentiator for organizational success. The need for agility is every more important, and that agility comes from being able to learn faster. Thus, if you want your people to be optimally successful for your organization, you’d like to have them be as effective as possible at learning, so they can be as effective as possible at the work that will make a difference to the organization. What is Meta-Learning? So if we’re clear about why we want to ensure that our people are good learners, then we need to discuss what meta-learning really is. And it’s a suite of things that interact with each other, but we can focus on a few things that are worth addressing. There are many more than can be comprehensively identified here, but there are steps to take and some general guidelines. First of all, meta-learning is a set of skills about how to learn. The range is vast: how to frame good questions, what resources are good for different types of questions, how to use those resources, how to document your progress, and more. Each of those breaks down into finer granularity, too. For example, documenting your progress can have component skills in storytelling, visual representations, and more. And it’s not just solo, but we also know that beyond one’s own learning, we learn better together. Certainly the outcomes of efforts to meet organizational needs are better when we tap into the power of people working together. And yet, here too, some specific approaches yield far better results than others. The room is smarter than the smartest person in the room, if you manage the process right! And it’s not just about learning in the moment, but developing over time, so setting up and regularly reviewing your information feeds, staying on top of social media, showing your work, presenting, and more are valuable activities too. It’s both in-the-moment abilities and a set of ongoing habits that are to be developed. Most importantly, to be ‘meta’ about it, you should be reviewing your learning processes as well! Are you reviewing the sources you check, the ways you search, the ways you represent your understandings, etc.? These are they types of habits that differentiate the best learners. Another component is your beliefs about learning. Do you believe that your learning ability is fixed, or can you influence it? Do you believe that failure is an opportunity or a problem? What do you believe is your responsibility in learning? These and more are beliefs that can facilitate or interfere with learning. There’s evidence that believing that you can get smarter, and that persistence through adversity is a personal commitment, leads to better performance. And, of course, the environment can be conducive to, or interfere with learning. For instance, making it safe to share failure allows lessons to be learned. Time for reflection needs to be allowed, as well. Providing resources for learning, both in house and externally helps, and support for learning is also valuable. Not all of these are easily achieved. To develop these takes awareness of the nuances, and a systematic plan to develop them. However, it can be done, and it should. So how can we make an impact? How to Learn How to Learn Self-learning really requires the learner to take responsibility for learning. The first element is awareness, and the usual org change tactics can be used; so you should evangelize why it’s important, model the process yourself, provide resources about learning to learn, and help individuals understand that they can take actions to make themselves more effective. Too many people aren’t even aware of learning to learn skills, nor that they can be changed for the better! Then you can scaffold specific skills. You can collect evidence about searching behaviors, and uses of resources to solve problems, so you can show folks how they’re doing. You can also offer courses on specific skills, such as searching using particular tools, and more. Certainly there can be support for how to use the organizational resources. And/or you could be available for coaching on problem-solving. Of course, you do need to know these skills yourself. This extends beyond personal skills to how to work well together. Sample skills include how to give feedback in ways that people will listen, how to ask questions in ways that get responses, the value of diversity, size of teams, ways to brainstorm effectively, and more. Organizing sharing sessions about learning is a possibility as well. There are external models, such as #lrnchat that can be used to help yourself or others learn more about learning. Any support you offer should focus on developing skills. Your course could, for instance, start off by providing resources on a topic, but then start asking learners to search on their own for resources, document the strategies, and share. Similarly, if you’re coaching, work out loud about looking for resources and annotate your work. This builds not only the awareness but the skills themselves in an intrinsic way. However, this really won’t help if you don’t have the culture where it’s safe to share. If your workplace is a ‘Miranda organization’, where anything you say can and will be held against you, people won’t share, yet that’s one of (if not the) most powerful form of learning. So you really do want to create a learning organization, where you have a conducive culture, leadership that supports learning, and explicit practices. Culture change is hard, but if we take the premise that agility is the key to organizational success in this era, a learning culture is the optimal advantage. There are steps to get there. So get busy learning to learn for yourself, your team, and your organization. It’s doable and valuable, arguably the most valuable thing you can do. Leaving it to chance is leaving money on the table, and who better to do it than the learning unit? The post Why Learning to Learn is More Important than Ever! appeared first on Litmos.